Elly Hardwick, the former chief executive of Credit Benchmark, has joined Deutsche Bank&#8217;s London office as the new head of innovation, which includes oversight of all Deutsche Bank Labs.

The bank announced plans to open three Deutsche Bank Labs last year in Berlin, Silicon Valley and London. The labs are aimed at helping the organization apply new technologies to enhance its products, services and processes. It will help it innovate and deepening its relationships with #tech startups.

Hardwick will also work with fintech startups and the firm&8217;s business units to drive new technology adoption, the bank said in a statement last week.

Philip Milne, who previously was the CEO and founder of a Silicon Valley virtual reality startup, joined Deutsche Bank&8217;s Palo Alto office in November as chief technology officer for innovation. Milne has been acting as &#8220;an interface between the Deutsche Bank Labs and the bank&8217;s wider technology organization.&#8221;

Both Hardwick and Milne will report to JP Rangaswami, the chief data offer and head of strategy and innovation for the bank&8217;s chief operating office.

Deutsche Bank has been facing a number of headwinds and its increased focus on fintech is intended to help it shore up its capital position and stabilize its share price, according to the Wall Street Journal. The firm said earlier this month that it plans to cut roughly 3,400 trading clients a part of a broader restructuring designed to cut costs and restore long-term stability.

Deutsche Bank Lab

The Deutsche Bank Labs are part of the bank&8217;s Strategy 2020 under which it plans to spend up to EUR 1 billion on digital initiatives over a period of five years.

Deutsche Bank Digital Factory in Frankfurt, Germany, via DB.com

Alongside the labs, Deutsche Bank has also opened a Digital Factory in Frankfurt where it focuses on developing digital banking products. Around 400 software developers, IT specialists and financial experts from 14 nations were working together in the space as of September 2016. The bank plans to increase headcount to 800 by 2018.

In October, Deutsche Bank partnered with Misys for a five-year enterprise license agreement to deploy Misys FusionBanking Lending and Misys FusionCapital solutions across the business.

Misys’ FusionBanking Lending offering includes the Loan IQ back office platform for syndicated lending and the front-end that originates from Custom Credit Systems, a US-based provider of commercial loan software which Misys acquired in 2014.

The FusionCapital solutions include a number of treasury and capital markets systems acquired by Misys over the years: Opics, Summit, Kondor and Sophis’ Risque.

Deutsche Bank Partners with Plug and Play Berlin

In September, Deutsche Bank teamed up with startup accelerator Axel Springer Plug and Play in Berlin to back banking and insurtech startups with cash and other support.

Upon completion of the program, which runs during 100 days, Deutsche Bank could decide to invest and partner with the companies. Investment would range between EUR 100,000 and EUR 500,000. The bank seeks to back and partner with roughly six companies by the end of 2017, according to the Financial News.

Matthaeus Sielecki, head of working capital advisory, financial technology, at Deutsche Bank, said in a recent interview that #banks and fintech startups must learn to co-operate to align strengths while addressing shortcomings.

&8220;In a highly regulated market such as financial services, neither type of organization can innovate and scale on its own,&8221; Sielecki said. &8220;Together, they can find the best ways of serving business customers in the digital age &#8211; by combining cutting-edge creativity with proven processes and infrastructure.&8221;

The statements echoed an extensive report released earlier this year in which Deutsche Bank calls for more collaboration between financial institutions and the startup community to leverage their respective strengths.

The Internet is changing the behavior of bank clients. Meanwhile innovative startups are coming up with new business models and cutting-edge technologies to change the way we manage our money.

During the past two years, interest in #fintech has increased massively, becoming a dominant buzzword in the financial industry.

&#8220;Digitalization in the financial sector will change banking,&#8221; the report says. Notably, digital transfers and payments transactions provide an attractive alternative to cash payments as they can be generated via smartphone apps.

In retail banking, online processing of banking activities is providing greater convenience and flexibility to clients.

Personal financial management (PFM) applications give clients an overview of their personal assets, current income and spending. They generate analysis and recommendations for personal budgeting.

Trading and advisory platforms enable users to access stock exchange trading. These platforms also analyze client portfolios using algorithms and generate automated investment recommendations. #Robo-advisors are also used in private banking, complementing the work of client advisors.

Robo-advisors are increasing in popularity in the private banking segment, and their advantages are clear: they are low-cost, can be used in a multitude of areas, have access to huge databases and are on call 24 hours a day.

In credit operations and capital markets, new products are enabling users to avoid financial intermediaries. On these platforms investors and borrowers come into direct contact with one another. These platforms are for instance crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lendings platforms.

Virtual currencies are an alternative means of payment to national currencies. #Bitcoin for instance enables users to make payments directly to one another, without using the services of a bank or other middleman.

Digital support, also known as regtech, promotes the implementation of regulations and helps ensure that risk analysis of unstructured data, scenario analysis and monitoring activities are organized more efficiently.

&8220;The new technologies in the financial arena will lead to a rationalization of processes in the banking sector in the years ahead and due to the strengthening of the client&8217;s position are set to alter the client/bank relationship on a lasting basis,&8221; the report says.

Another #technology that plays a significant role within fintech is #blockchain technology, which the report claims has &8220;the potential to fundamentally change the financial industry.&8221;

It details:

&8220;Blockchain gained recognition above all thanks to the #cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, its area of use is not just confined to digital currencies.

&8220;Indeed in principle the technology can be applied to a very wide range of areas: For example, the US Nasdaq stock exchange has introduced a trading platform based on blockchain.

&8220;It is conceivable that blockchain technology will replace clearing houses in securities trading. But in the art and diamond trade too, blockchain has the potential to make forgeries and the sale of stolen goods more difficult.&8221;

The report points out the conditions for the successful integration of digitalization into the business world. First, there must be a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure that meets current requirements. Then, the growing importance of the MINT (mathematics, IT, natural sciences and technology) subject must be addressed in order to ensure that businesses located in Switzerland can recruit the specialist personnel they need. Finally, overall regulatory conditions must be adapted to the new requirements.

It further advises on the formation of clusters of various different economic sectors, citing the example of Silicon Valley.

&8220;Switzerland is well placed with economic centers that are located in close proximity to one another such as Zurich (financial services, industry), Basel (pharmaceuticals, chemicals) and Geneva (financial services, commodities),&8221; the report notes.

For Switzerland to keep its position as a world leading financial center, there much be a number of actions to be undertaken by the public sector and the private sector. It suggests regular reviews and modification of existing overall regulatory conditions to facilitate new business models, as well as the creation of a recognized &8220;Digital Switzerland&8221; umbrella brand to improve external perceptions. Other ideas include launching sector initiative to encourage digitalization, adapting existing business models and services to the digital reality, as well as networking with other sectors to achieve scale effects.